The city plans to combat potential transportation problems associated with evacuating the disabled and other special-needs residents during major storms by beginning the process sooner, officials said yesterday.

“We recognize that we have to be very proactive when it comes to hospitals and nursing homes,” said Jarod Bernstein, a spokesman for the Office of Emergency Management.

He added that OEM would ensure that special-needs residents be evacuated 72 hours before a weather-related emergency hits, as opposed to the 36-hour protocol.

“The Fire Department will visit every single hospital and nursing home to make sure they have their emergency plans implemented, and if we don’t think a facility is moving forward fast enough or that their plan [is] comprehensive enough, we will jump in and make sure it is,” Bernstein said.

This was in response to criticism recently leveled by state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester), who subpoenaed OEM for copies of the plan and other documents.

Brodsky has alleged that OEM only started revising its hurricane-evacuation plan after an Assembly committee that he chairs issued a Sept. 15 report calling the plan outdated and riddled with flaws.

But Bernstein said that OEM had started updating its plan last spring – months before the committee report – and that the process was nearly complete.

Revisions, he added, take into account the city’s growing population and lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina.